MSTP life at Washington University

2009-07-15T09:10:00.002-06:00

I wrote this up after noticing that critical thinking, which is pretty much all you do in grad school (and sometimes do in medical school) pretty much ruins your ability to take any arguments from laypeople seriously. Our culture has a thinking problem. More specifically, our culture has a lack-of-thinking problem. The scientific thought process, which will become your life in the grad years, makes you painfully aware of this.

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I want to briefly ramble about a bane of the first two years of medical school which, as I have emerged from my cocoon of WUSM II, I have also noticed a great deal in popular media:

The scourge of plausibility

In med school (especially 2^nd year), you go through some pretty specific and complex physiology and pathophysiology. You often find yourself trying to reason through complicated questions imposed by other students trying to figure things out, especially in topics like cardiology, nephrology, and neurology. Instead of wading through pages of text, you might find yourself coming up with an answer and justifying it with a plausible mechanism that you derive from other knowledge that serves as “common sense.” One example I remember is as follows (skip if you don’t care):

A friend and I knew from lecture that acidemia causes hyperkalemia, but we didn’t understand why. We thought that the increased acid secretion by the kidney would go hand in hand with potassium secretion… but this wasn’t the case. So, we tried to back-reason mechanisms for this apparent paradox. Here’s the scourge:

We had some pretty interesting solutions, all sounding “plausible” with our medical knowledge at the time, and all totally wrong. Once we got it straightened out, I felt a little silly. This happened other times with problems that were much more difficult to resolve.

Here’s a real world example: I am going to make a pair of contradictory statements, and back them up using stereotypes that you probably have. If you read only the first or only the second, you might believe either.

1. Heavy online video game players (think World of Warcraft addicts) are generally overweight. Their constant grazing on high calorie foods and soft drinks, in addition to their sedentary lifestyle, shifts their average BMI well into the overweight range.

2. Heavy online video game players (think World of Warcraft addicts) are generally underweight. Their constant inactivity, nutrient-poor diet, and low sun-induced vitamin D synthesis leads to muscle and skeletal atrophy and shifts their average BMI well into the underweight range.

These statements might invoke images from your memory (http://tinyurl.com/cjjeoz from South Park http://tinyurl.com/n6fznk, the mac guy/ hacker from Live Free or Die Hard), enforcing your belief in the “truth” of each statement. But which is right? I don't know, but a really fast pubmed search found this http://tinyurl.com/mkaerc which seems to suggest that neither is (clinically) true.

The popular media, I’ve been noticing, is HORRIBLE with this. Anything sounding plausible is reported as fact, especially under the pretense of stereotypes/generalizations. It’s gotten to the point where I just stopped believing anything vaguely “scientific” that I haven't read in a true scientific publication*. This is especially true when it comes to health, psych, or behavioral research. If you hear anything, and I mean ANYTHING, in the health/news/tech newsmedia, don’t believe it. Don’t even regurgitate in bar chatter with friends unless you’ve looked into it further.

If you want to know if it’s true or not:

- go to the article/news story

- find the researcher mentioned or interviewed

- go to their lab page or do a lit search

- find their most recent article pertaining to that topic

- skim the abstract and conclusions or, better yet, read the whole thing

If you don’t care enough to at least glance at it like this, it isn't interesting enough for conversation fodder anyway.

And I swear, the next person that says something like “I heard about a neurological study that shows that facebook and myspace are actually making kids stupid” is going to get chewed out.

*: Journal, review, textbook, book, or (with caution) science reporting outlet.

USMLE advice you won’t get anywhere else

2009-06-18T15:52:00.001-06:00

Once I started studying for the boards, I found that most of the advice I had heard was crap. Not that it was bad advice in its own character, really; it just didn’t apply to me at all. I just don’t think I learn the same way the average med student does. Maybe this is why I went MSTP instead of MD. Anyway, here’s my list of unorthodox strategies that I found helpful while studying for the USMLE.

1. Learn excel. Learn it really, really well.
Let’s say (in theory) you somehow got your hands on an electronic copy of First Aid or some other boards review book and you really want to make some flashcards. If you know excel really well, you can just highlight the columns of the table in Acrobat, paste into Word, run your cleaning macros (Oh, BTW, learn Word programming really well, too), and paste into excel. Repeat this with all of the columns from the First Aid table and you have reproduced it. Then just write some formula like:
=C38&IF(D38<>"","<><>"&D38,"")
Or
=IF(C139<>"",$C$113&C139&$I$113,"")&IF(D139<>"",$D$113&D139&$I$113,"")&IF(E139<>"",$E$113&E139&$I$113,"")&IF(F139<>"",$F$113&F139&$I$113,"")
Fill down, copy all the results, paste into Flashcardexchange.com with “<>” as the line break indicator, and you’re done. Seems like a lot of work, huh? Well it isn’t; you just made 100+ flashcards in under 10 minutes. All you need to do this is really solid knowledge of excel functions and how to link them together. I’d go into this more, but it’d be really boring pretty much everyone but me.

2. Get flashcards on your iphone/ipod touch.
I used Mental case despite not having a Mac. I bought the premium version, too. Worked great with all those flashcardexchange.com sets. Now you’re studying while in line at the grocery store or bank. Awesome.

3. If you’re not one to burn out, don’t think you’re going to burn out.
Everyone I talked to from the class above said things like “after 2 weeks, I couldn’t read any more” or “anything after 3 weeks is useless as you’re going to burn out anyway.” I never thought I was a burning-out kind of guy, but I believed them. Well, turns out I don’t burn out. I got a little wobbly a few days before exam, but that was due to the number of days remaining opposed to the number of days behind me. Not everyone burns out, so just go with what you know about your work ethic.

4. You don’t NEED to take a break first.
Everyone and their mother seems to believe that in order to survive the USMLE, you MUST take at least a few days, and as much as a week off between 2nd year finals and studying for the boards. Nope. I suspected that I’d rather start right away and get more days off at the end. I was spot on. Turns out that advice was crap.

5. Nearly everything anyone tells you about the boards is anecdote, not fact.
Duh, right? This should be obvious, but soooo many people spout advice and stories like it’s all absolute Truth. “The test doesn’t really mention X or Y” “You need to study by doing Z” etc., etc. Well, their words apply to them and maybe a subset of everyone else, but you can’t be sure it works for you.

#5 is the most important one here. It tells you that #s 1-4 of my post are complete crap. They are! Those things applied to ME, and I am an outlier (and that is an understatement). I would be shocked if any of it proved useful to more than 1 or 2 people. If you seek advice from SDN forum members or classmates already done with the USMLE, take it all lightly; you are a different person. It’s like a vacation: if someone you know has been to Venice and tells you about it, you wouldn’t assume that their Venetian vacation is the only right Venetian vacation, right? It’s just like that, only the vacation sucks.

Update

2009-06-09T09:52:00.002-06:00

I am in the throes of the USMLE right now. I have oodles to spew forth on the interwebs once I have the time, but for now I need to keep at this. For the record: my last post (where I said I was studying for the USMLE already in December) makes me laugh. I did that for, like, 3 days. Some good that did.

Topics to come:
- buying a home as an MSTP (with your own money!)
- USMLE advice you won't get anywhere else (alternatively titled: Why >80% of the USMLE advice I received did not apply to me at all)
- USMLE advice you likely will get somewhere else
- MSTP0 - MSTP2: how it changed what I thought about science/medicine/intellectualism
- Rants! I have 1 or 2 things I just need to rip to shreds.

I'm sure I will come up with more as I go. I promise, before I hit "publish", I will make sure I keep the wishy-washy nonsense to a minimum and keep things as short as possible.

Until then
R

Yes, I am alive.

2008-12-30T23:17:00.004-06:00

So, it's been forever and a half, since I last posted, and for those of you out there that were worried I am still alive (which I'm sure weren't many of you....except maybe my mom, but since a) I talk to her everyday and b) she doesn't know what a blog is, I don't think she was concerned). Anyway, I thought it was time for a post.

Lots and lots has happened. 2nd year is hard as everyone said it would be, but it is also interested. The sheer amount of information is definitely overwhelming at times, but a long time ago I accepted that perfection was unattainable and I feel OK even if I don't know every detail and minutiae. I think that has been harder for some of my other classmates. I also have been trying really hard neither to beat myself up over unproductive times nor to become overwhelmed by the amount of work that still needs to be done. Although I have had my moments of freaking out (no one's perfect...see above).

I had heard that CPR block was hard conceptually but GI block was hard because of the sheer amount of material, and I think that that was pretty much true. I had also heard that it was really hard to start GI block right after CPR block because you don't have a long weekend in between (as you do between the first 2 blocks). I think that this was true, but I don't think that the long weekend really would have made a difference. I was definitely just burned out after CPR block for about a week and I really never regained the same intensity during GI block I don't think, but it all seems to have worked out alright.

I really started focusing on Lecture Objectives as a way to study, and that seems to be working pretty well, so I've been sticking with it. I also have really liked small groups/labs as a way to go over things and hear them another time and in a different way. I definitely like repetition.

I had been studying at the carrels a lot more than I had first year, but I got really sick of it during CPR block, so I wasn't there as much for GI block. I also started just studying at home more, partially because it really started getting cold out (at least for my wimpy constitution), which makes me become somewhat of a hermit. The only problem with that is that I definitely felt a bit lonely and isolated, which is largely due to the fact that I live by myself (which I actually usually enjoy quite a bit). I don't know...I definitely need to work on some kind of balance. I think the other issue is that I've found it hard to hang out with a lot of my friends because we all have such limited non-studying time, and that time doesn't always coincide (i.e. you started studying earlier so you want to take a break earlier than your friends, or you were planning to take Saturday night off, but they weren't etc. etc.). It definitely takes some more planning.

In an effort to try and maintain some semblance of sanity and social interaction this block, many of the MSTP girls (and some of our med school friends) planned to get together once a week and watch the PBS version of Pride and Prejudice (featuring Colin Firth...insert swoon here). We weren't wholly successful (we only met twice), but it was really fun and I believe will be continued next year.

On a totally separate note, I've been helping to choreograph for the med school musical (yes, the med school puts on a musical every year, which at least last year was quite good. There is a surprising number of EXCEPTIONALLY talented people in med school). I have limited dancing experience and ZERO choreography experience, but it's been really fun.

We've also all been trying to figure out the whole USMLE process (for those of you as clueless as I was, USMLE are the licensing board exams that you have to take. There are 3 steps, which you take at various points during your medical career. Step 1 is taken after your 2nd year of med school). I have gotten registered and tentatively picked a date. I haven't done major studying at all, but I am doing a bit of review of Biochem over break, esp. since I took a grad school class (molecular cell biology) in lieu of med school biochem. However, since I haven't taken biochem since my junior year of college, I figured a little review and some focus on clinical biochemstry would be a good idea.

Ok, well I think I"ll leave it at that. Happy New Year to everyone!

GI block redux, USMLE for fun?

2008-12-26T00:29:00.001-06:00

We got to learn a bit about the science advisory board in DC for the next four years. I am not going to write anything about it. I don’t feel like it.

GI block (gastrointestinal disease, endocrinology, and dermatology plus their respective pathology sections) was MUCH harder than CPR block. CPR, in hindsight, wasn’t that bad. More concepts, fewer factoids were to be had in CPR block. Be forewarned, incoming students.

Really, it took me until GI block (and halfway through, at that) to understand how I need to study. I tackled pharm block like a first year that worked a little harder (wrong idea). I took on CPR block like a study-shotgun being fired at a course-load wall (wrong idea). Halfway through GI block, I took a few hours and constructed an elaborate workbook that tracked, graphed, and summarized my study activities, confidence with various lecture subjects, pace vs. lecture schedule, and many other things. It updated automatically when I input various parameters and gave me a constant overview of where I was and where I needed to be. Anal-retentive organization, it turns out, was what I needed. Too bad this is completely against my nature and took me 3 months or so to learn…

On another note, I started studying for step 1. I am not crazy, I am not gunner, and I am not a perfectionist. The reason I started studying is because
- Reviewing medicine is actually interesting. Reading about science is a zen activity for me, and since I have no deadlines or pressure at the moment, it’s actually entertaining.
- It doesn’t stress me out right now (see above) and I figure more is always better if you can handle it.
I have also decided where I am going to study when it comes down to the 3 weeks pre-exam. I was thinking about coming to stay with my parents (up north) for free food/laundry service while I studied. I figured that I could study in peace.
When I took a diagnostic exam for shits the other night, I posted a note on the door of my study reading:
“Taking an exam until 7:00 or 7:30. Please do not interrupt me unless it is something REALLY important. Leave a note on the door and I will get it when I am done.”

About 1 hour, 10 mins into my test, I get a knock on the door.
“Dinner’s ready.”

That settles it. I am staying in St. Louis.

Daring proposition for US medicine

2008-12-12T18:45:00.002-06:00

President elect Obama released this video last week about jobs and the economy. The part that relates to this blog comes in right after 3:50 or so: electronically linking all of our health care. The task is massive and I am skeptical (skepticism has its place in politics as well as science) but it could change the way we do medicine. I don't see it happening before I get my PhD, maybe even my MD, but here's to hope.

2008-10-24T23:21:00.003-06:00

Look, this blog isn't about politics. It's about science. Any soundbite by any candidate that so blatantly trivializes a key part of scientific research deserves attention by the scientific community.

BTW: if you want to be involved in science and politics,
http://sefora.org/

2nd year represented in 1 image

2008-10-22T12:41:00.004-06:00

I took a quick break from studying to take and stitch together this shoddy panorama of our study carrel. The desks here mostly belong to MSTPs, some of whom use this space as mere storage and others who use it for daily studying. Note the piles of study materials and beverage containers. We have 2 minifridges stocked with food, juices, and beer, about a dozen different dry teas, a microwave, water boiler, rice cooker, food cabinets, etc. It's pretty much a home away from home, and many of us spend 12+ hours a day in this little room.

(We got really unlucky in the lottery for carrel space. Most carrels are much larger and have windows. We live in a closet. Although this sucks during sunny days, it does help you forget that it's 11 PM and you are still studying. A mixed blessing, for sure.)

Back to pathology...

CPR block'd!

2008-10-20T19:41:00.003-06:00

This blog has been on my mind more than the [lack of] updates suggest. A few reasons:

I keep thinking “I should really do an entry about 2^nd year” and the madness that is CPR block

I think I want to change the kind of content that is here (more about this below)

I notice that we (or, since I am the only one that really writes here, I) get more traffic these days.

Why haven’t I updated? Mostly because I am a 2^nd year med student and my life has little time for blog updates. Sorry, that’s how it goes in CPR block. After this exam block, I will see if I can bang out an entry or two about 2^nd year. Until then, I have some thoughts about content that I would like to spew forth to see if any readers will react. Positive or negative comments are welcome.

About what am I writing? Well, I read many other med/MSTP blogs. One blog in particular irks me. Now, maybe it’s because I have a personal bias against the school/author(s) for admittedly shallow reasons… or maybe it’s because the content sucks and it comes across as pretentious, boasting, and other adjectives that convey the same point. I dunno.

At any rate, I don’t want to write about my MSTP life like the other blogger(s) go(es) on about this other school’s program(s)*. I realize that some of my previous entries, especially those written when I was still in awe that I actually made it this far, sound almost exactly like this other school’s blogger(s). This irritates me.

So, readers (that I know are out there!), what do you want me to cover here? I can bitch about the daily strife of the MSTP life, I can wax philosophical about the state of science and medicine today, or I can just answer questions about the school and programs. My goal is to be as palatable and useful as possible without having to censor myself, sound like a PR firm, or end up reading like that other blog. If you don’t give input, I will just write whatever I feel like writing. This blog might thus end up as something like a verbal colostomy bag. That’s something nobody wants.

OK, readers, what would you like this blog to become?

*To avoid digging myself into a hole, I have to be annoyingly cryptic about my trivial dislike for this other party. To the other bloggers out there that I know read this at every update- I read lots of blogs so the chances that I am bashing you are pretty slim. Most of you write well and provide a great service to those interested in your institutions. Even if I am referring to your school, my opinion means nothing; what do I know, anyway?

class show tidbits

2008-05-22T15:09:00.000-06:00

If you want to see what antics our crazy class our class is getting into these days, check out these youtube videos. If you know the MSTs (through interviews or second looks) you will notice that we were pretty omnipresent in the class show. There are some more vids on the WUMS2011 youtube account if you care to see some more.

Oh yeah, and we got the final roster of the incoming MSTP class. I look forward to meeting the ones I haven’t yet. Alright, I gotta study for Neuroscience; final’s next week.

end of interview season!

2008-03-06T14:48:00.001-06:00

Yes, yes… bad MSTP blogger. I haven’t written about the grandeur and glamour that is the life of an MD/PhD in a while. I kind of thought I would have time to do so while recovering from a recent surgery, but it turns out I just slept a lot.

There are some of you that I really liked and was saddened to find out that you were not offered a spot on the admissions list. Let’s just say that if I had some say, I would have changed that for a few of you. Seeing as how I enjoyed meeting you because you were intelligent, balanced, and fun to talk to, I am sure you got an offer from other great schools. The national MSTP crowd is well connected enough that I can reasonably expect to cross paths with you sometime again in our careers.

And now I just want to take a few minutes to say:

-it was awesome meeting those applicants that I was fortunate enough to meet

-I am pumped to learn that there are already a good number of you signed on and committed to the program

-come to second look weekend

-no, really, come to second look weekend. It’s FREE.

Second look is absurdly fun (really, it’s ridiculous.) If you can, I suggest that you come to the one that combines the MD class with the MSTPs. If not, at least go to the MSTP only one. Even if you aren’t totally into WashU at that point, second look is a great time to network with other MSTPs, some of whom will end up here and some of whom will choose other schools.

Oh, and I am helping to plan the MD/MSTP combined weekend. Unfortunately, the MSTP-exclusive weekend falls on our spring break, so the 1^st and 2^nd years will be mostly out of town by then. I might still try to meet up with you on the Friday prior, but that’s pending.

At any rate, being an MSTP here is still awesome and I am still having the time of my life. And I can speak first hand that if you for any reason must take some time off from school (say, to get your leg repaired), the school is wonderful to you throughout the process. You don’t appreciate it until you need it.

See you in April…

One semester down...

2008-01-16T21:14:00.000-06:00

So, we're about a week and a half into the second semester of first year, so I thought it was time to write an update. I've actually tried writing this a couple of times, but for some reason it's been hard. anyway, here it goes.

It's kind of weird reflecting on all of the things that I learned over the last six months. The amount of information that I know now and didn't before starting med school is kind of astounding. Finals at the end of the year was definitely a bit intense, but it felt great to get it done! However, after being in st. Louis for more than 7 months I can confidently say that I am so happy with my choice to come to WashU and St. Louis. I even forget sometimes how lucky we are. When I told some people over break that med school was fun, they just gave me the strangest looks because that's not a word they were used to hearing associated with first year of med school. However, I'd say that there's a pretty good consensus of happiness among the first years!

Winter break was fantastic, although a bit short. I could have used a couple of extra days. It was nice hanging with my family though and just taking it easy.

it was great coming back to school and seeing all of my friends. I really missed them over break. This semester has been pretty good so far. I definitely miss anatomy all ready as now we have a lot more time in lecture, but small groups do help break it up. Plus, I really like the classes that we have this semester. Anyway, I guess that's all. We'll see how things go this semester!

PS. A fun video that we were looking at during physio small group today. Enjoy!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YwNi8dzj0S8

social studies

2007-11-17T10:41:00.001-06:00

Oh… is that an MSTP thing?

So it appears that the divide between MSTPs and MS1s has been widening. I first started noticing it at the med school applicant parties. When all of the next day’s applicants are relaxing and enjoying free pizza courtesy of WUSM, the first years will descend and answer questions, eat free food, and shoot the shit. Every once in a while, an applicant would ask a question and an MS1 will finish their answer with something like “… unless you’re an MSTP, then it’s different.” This evolved over the weeks into some variants, such as “unless you’re an MSTP. They get all the money/they’re spoiled/they’re special.” Sometimes, an applicant would ask me a question and an MS1 will cut in and say something like “he wouldn’t know, he’s an MSTP.” Aggravating, huh? Really, we are just like MS1s. The only differences are that we have the option to take one different class than the MS1s do, we get paid tuition (ahem… 16 MS1s have free rides, but who thinks of that?), and that we have the occasional research talk over lunch.

Well, it went to a new level last Thursday. I was talking to a MS1 that I consider a pretty good friend. We were talking about Indian restaurants in the area, and she recommended her favorite. I said “Hey! I’m going to be there on Sunday!” Her response was “Oh, is this another MSTP lunch?”

This bothered me. Yes, some of the MSTPs are good friends. About a third of us are very, very close, at least half are good enough friends that we often will eat dinner/see a movie /etc. with each other. When we do so, however, there are usually MS1s there as well. We are by no means exclusive. Now on the flipside, the person that organized this Indian lunch on Sunday invited only MSTPs, but that’s her prerogative, not ours as a whole. In fact, last night I was hanging out with 9 people, of whom I was the only MSTP. Basically, what I’m getting at here is that there is no such thing as a Sunday MSTP lunch. It’s just a lunch among friends, but I guess some in our class feel otherwise and see the MSTPs as an exclusive group. Oh well, I guess it’s bound to happen to some extent.

On a related note, I am now also in a hard place because of my lack of social exclusivity. The class as a whole is 123 people. I am now involved in planning a trip with some friends (mostly MS1s, to relate this to the previous story). I want to have my friends with me, of course, but there’s a problem. Because I refuse to be cliqued off, many of my friends come from separate social groups. No big deal, as most people still get along fine. The problem lies in that there are some seeds of contempt here and there. What to do when some of my friends really don’t like some of my other friends?

Oi. They weren’t kidding when they said med school = high school with smarter people.

more of the same + a random rant

2007-10-14T22:06:00.000-06:00

So, things around here have become a bit routine. Not in a bad way for an MSTP student, mind you, but for you guys as readers. There’s little else about which to write. I mean, as L has already written, our first anatomy exam (not too bad) and first MCB (molecular cell biology, the grad school course a bunch of us take) exam (OI VEH! Don’t get me started…) have past us by, and some MSTPs are currently cranking for their MFM (molecular foundations of medicine, a.k.a. mother f*%&ing molecules) tomorrow. The rest of the MSTPs, however, are chilling until histology (Wednesday’s exam) and physiology (Thursday).

Cliff’s notes: school is moving along, and there is very little that we can write about at this point.

Oh, but it’s interview season! I can honestly say that I love seeing applicants. I take the MD applicants on little unofficial tours where I show them stuff that they don’t get so see on theirs. The MSTP tours, however, are much more thorough. I digress: what I want to get at is if you find me during your MSTP interview, I’ll talk your ear off and distract you from the stress of the whole process.

On to something totally unrelated to life here: does anyone else think that Rosalind Franklin’s status as some sort of feminist martyr is little more than BS? I only bring this up because WIRED magazine is running a thing on the most underappreciated scientists in history, and Franklin is near the top (a position dominated by Tesla, and rightfully so, in my opinion.) Yes, photograph 51 was vital to the W-C model of B-DNA, but honestly, she just took a photograph. She was a good crystallographer in that she could take a good photo, but if she was that good, couldn’t she solve the structure herself? She sat on the data. She was ready to drop the project and leave altogether because she hated working at King’s. Yes, yes, she hated it because King’s was an institution full of sexism, but that had nothing to do with Watson’s or Crick’s ideas. People just make this assumption, which I think was wrong: Franklin was a victim of sexism in science, and Franklin’s photo was used* without her knowledge to elucidate the structure of DNA, therefore she should have gotten credit as the true discoverer of the DNA structure to rectify the sexism.

I don’t buy it. I am not saying anything about her here other than that her role in this particular paper was little more than that of a technician. And at least a technician would have had intellectual input. She had none (for whatever reason: some basically hold to it that she was a hostile bitch and had no interest in any sort of contribution, others say that the man kept her down and disallowed her to add her intellectual muscle should she have it in this particular experiment.) So when I hear someone saying that Franklin is the real discoverer of the double helix, I interpret that as worse than sexism – scientific ignorance and reactionary feminism.

I’m bound to get hate mail/comments about this. Whatever, I have researched this plenty and I love the intellectual exercise.

PS I finally got a camera. Expect some more photographs of life as an MSTP, especially come spring when things really get fun/crazy.

-R

*: “used” is a very, very loose word here. She presented a lot of data to her peers at a talk prior to this, and photo 51 merely received a glanced at by Crick. That’s all he needed to do. He didn’t really use the photograph as the intellectual workhorse of the structural study.

The end of test craziness...for now!

2007-10-03T22:44:00.000-06:00

It's been a while since I posted so I thought that it was time for an update.

Things have been crazy here lately! I just finished a take-home test that capped off my first round of tests in med school! We had anatomy on Monday (which everyone in our fantastic class passed!) and then our in-class molecular cell bio (MCB, which is a grad school class that a lot of MSTs take instead of med school biochem) exam on Tuesday followed by a take-home that's due tomorrow. I'm definitely ready for a bit of a break!

Amidst all of this test craziness it was really great to see how nice our class really is. Everyone really worked together in studying for the anatomy exam, and as many of us MSTs were left studying on Monday night we got visits by some of the med students and MSTs not in MCB that included food (cookies and apples) to help us study! It's so nice to be going to school with such considerate people!

On a totally separate note, MSTP interviews are starting this week, which is really exciting! To all of you applicants out there, good luck and don't be nervous!

work all day, play all night.

2007-09-20T10:33:00.000-06:00

Well, we (mostly) survived our first MSTP retreat. Now, going into the retreat, I thought that the second year MS’s were a little crazy. They seem to party harder than anyone I had ever seen over the summer. That, combined with the fact that the second year students (including the MSTPs) had just finished their first exam block, lead me to expect that the second year MSTP students would be partying pretty hard on that Saturday night. Well.. I was wrong. The older MSTPs, especially those who are about halfway through their lab work, were intense! The retreat was mind-blowingly fun. I mean, the float trip was great because it was mostly just the firstyears, and all of the MS’s were involved. But the MSTP crowd, it turns out, is just as fun.

I think I got to bed around 4:30 AM. Others just didn’t sleep at all. After listening to 5ish hours of research presentation, you really gotta let loose.

(it's hard to blog while listening to uncle bob lecture about heart physiology...)

work hard, play hard

2007-09-09T12:34:00.000-06:00

So the routine is settling in. Most of us MSTPs are fixtures at the study carrels after lecture and for most of the afternoons during the weekend. The carrels are actually a great place for “social studying” so it keeps the stress kinda low. Don’t fret, however, as we are not really boring due to all of this studying. In fact, two of the MSTPs were just elected to the social chair position, which means people seem to have gotten the idea that MSTPs are actually fun and can organize a good party. Some of the second years even think that the MSTP class this year is a little too crazy.

Oh, and I hope to see some of you readers (there are a few hundred of you now! I am shocked.) at the interviews that are fast approaching. You won’t have much trouble figuring out who I am.

-R

Two weeks down....and many more great ones to come!

2007-09-01T21:57:00.000-06:00

So the last three weeks (orientation + the first 2 weeks of classes) have been absolutely amazing. I've met almost our entire med school class, and everyone really seems great! It's so nice to be surrounded by people who are fun, but can also have really interesting conversations.

The last two weeks have pretty much been a big jump into med school, but so far it's been what I expected: a lot of work, but mostly interesting stuff. Also, everyone has remained pretty social, which is nice; however, the number of social outings has decreased, but that's to be expected.

Since so much has happened in the last few weeks, I'll try and hit the highlights:

We had our white coat ceremony at the end of orientation week and most people's parents/families came in town. I was a bit skeptical of the white coat ceremony because I thought it sounded kind of dumb, but it was actually really nice. It was also really cool to be able to get to meet a lot of people's parents/siblings/etc. Since I hadn't been home for almost a month, tt was great to see my parents for the weekend and get to hang out with them!

Last weekend we had the diversity retreat/ropes course. About 4/5 of the class came, which was awesome. We had the diversity retreat friday night and then stayed overnight in a hotel. The next day we went to a ropes course, which also included a climbing tower and some team-building activities. The diversity retreat was pretty fun, and we talked about some different case studies and how preconceived notions and assumptions about different types of people could affect the way you treated a patient. That night there was a killer dance party, where almost everyone there danced and had a GREAT time! The next day we broke into groups and rotated between the ropes course, climbing tower, and team-building activities. We were divided randomly into groups, which gave a great opportunity to get to know new people better. I was really impressed with how well everyone cooperated. I thought with so many high-achieving ambitious people it might be difficult, but we really didn't have any problems!

Last week, we started anatomy class and lab. It's definitely a little weird, but I think that it will be really valuable to see what we learn in class in a real body. I was really fine the first two days and then on Friday, I got a bit nauseaus, but I think that I'll get used to it. I guess part of me doesn't really want to get used to it just because I don't want to forget that we are dissecting a human body. It's tough striking a balance between objectifying and personalizing your cadaver.

We also had our first Primary Care Preceptroship (PCP) this week. PCPs are a part of the Practice of Medicine class (POM...as you can see we like abbreviations). You have 4 PCP visits throughout the year with the same physician. Mine was with a Internist whose office was about 20 minutes away from campus. He was amazing. He was very very nice, and he had a fantastic way of personally connecting with his patients. He also let me do a lot of things, like practicing how to interview a patient, which was really cool, but definitely kind of scary, since I've only been in med school for 2 weeks.

Today was the float trip (i.e. a tubing trip, for those of you from TX). I didn't go because I wanted some extra down time this weekend to rest and try and get some things done, like cleaning, but I suspect it was a fantastic time. I'm really glad I didn't go though because I think I'm getting sick, so it was good to have the extra time at home.

Well, I think that's all of the highlights for now.

Nerdy Med School Pick Up Line of the Day!

2007-08-29T19:48:00.000-06:00

Hey, you want to go back to my place and anastamose?

**For those of you that weren't in class today, anastamose was defined as "hooking up"

Will post more later.

A quick anatomical anecdote

2007-08-29T17:13:00.000-06:00

I never hesitated with the cadaver. I saw it as an object from the start, and this is clear in the manner in which I dissect. While everyone else pokes timidly, I follow my Grant’s dissector verbatim in that “in the context of this dissection manual, the meaning of dissect is to tear apart.” I dive in as I would do when taking apart a car, computer, or vacuum cleaner. Today, however, I stopped for the first time. In order to relax the pectoralis major, the arm needs to be adducted and flexed. One of my partners was struggling to get his hands under the muscle, so I grabbed the cadaver’s hand to pull it toward the median. That’s when, for a split second, I paused; in lifting the arm, the fingers tightened a little. It is horrendously cliché, but it really reminded me that this human body was once a human being.

(Dis)oriented!

2007-08-27T16:01:00.000-06:00

So suddenly there is a lot more about which I should write, but as a result there is only a small fraction of the time to write. Here’s my lame attempt to catch you up on what it means to be an MSTP:

So starting from L’s definition of rocktastic (a word derived as a description of what it feels like to be at a bar with most of the 1^st years and a $1000 tab that needed to be polished off), the last few weeks have been an absolutely amazing time. The remainder of orientation week went like this: be at the LTC by 8:30 AM or so, be orientated until anywhere from 3 to 5 depending on the day, nap for an hour, go out and party like rockstars until 1:00 (or 3:00, or 6:00 AM, depending on the night and your degree of rocktasticallity) only to wake (assuming you went to bed) and go back in at 8:30 the next morning. The class bonded exceptionally well, and the MSTPs for the most part are an even tighter subsection of the med class. This is not to say that we aren’t completely rooted with the rest of the M1s, but the MSTPs tend to have dinner parties or other functions before the other events because we really enjoy the conversations we have as a group. Pool parties, sports in the park, movies, and pub crawls have been the norm. Classes started and everyone dove right in, taking it very seriously and at the same time making plenty of time for fun. The diversity retreat was awesome (everyone, literally every single person, had a blast. Do it next year.) and we have the float trip coming up next weekend on top of all that.

Honestly, these three weeks (WUMP through present) have been the best I can remember. Plus, anatomy is SO COOL and we MSTPs get to have a free lunch after our Wednesday lab, and the smell of formalin makes you really, really hungry.

Things that suck:

· A lot of food in my fridge went bad because I haven’t had the need to eat more than 3 or 4 meals at home in the last few weeks. This isn’t so bad, because that means we’ve been dined a lot.

· Some of the IT stuff has still been rocky, especially for the MSTPs here this summer. We couldn’t log into the carrel computers for a while, our medportal (the site that has all of the class notes) has been sketchy with access, and the wireless was a bit of a pain to set up since the IT dept. needs to commandeer your laptop for a day or so to do it for you.

That’s about all I can come up with. Sorry about the poor writing here; I am watching a dissection video online while writing so my attention is about 25%.

-R

ROCKTASTIC

2007-08-15T20:15:00.000-06:00

New word of the week:
Rocktastic
Pronunciation:\räk-ˈtas-tik\
Function: adjective
Date: 2007
Origin: Goiffonian/Fogelian hybrid
Etymology: A combination of the word rock, which originates from Middle English rokken, from Old English roccian; akin to Old High German rucken to cause to move, and fantastic, which comes form Middle English fantastic, fantastical, from Middle French & Late Latin; Middle French fantastique, from Late Latin phantasticus, from Greek phantastikos producing mental images, from phantazein to present to the mind.
1: Utter and total awesomeness, often accompanied with great happiness and mild inebriation.
Synonyms: Reesolicious, rocktacular

An official Missourian

2007-08-13T14:19:00.000-06:00

As of this afternoon, I am officially a Missourian. Anyway, so I am now officially a Missouri resident because I got a MO drivers license this afternoon. I was especially impressed by how easy the process was. There was no line, and I was done with everything in less than 30 minutes.

I guess technically you could say I always have been one since I was born in MO, but I grew up on the Kansas side of the state line and there was always a bit of teasing between the kids that lived in MO vs those that lived in KS (for those of you that didn't know there is a Kansas City, MO and a Kansas City, KS separated by the state line). Although to many of you being from KS may not seem like something one would be proud of (after all our state board of education did outlaw teaching evolution and everyone thinks all there is in KS are farms, tornadoes, and Dorothy and the other characters from the Wizard of Oz), I am proud of KS. Especially in high school, it was better to be from KS than from MO because you got to drive earlier (you can get your learner's permit at 14 and a restricted license at 15, which allows you to drive to school and work by yourself, and in MO you can't get your permit until you're 15 or 15.5, I can't remember).

It's kind of funny how getting a small card can mean something. It really makes it seem real that I am starting this new part of my life, and i am going to be here for the next several years (I'm not really ready to start guessing the exact number, so we'll leave it at several). Furthermore, after such a fun summer, I'm really excited that I'll be here for a while. When I first told people I was applying or coming to WashU, some people were curious and even skeptical of what there was to do in St. Louis, but as hopefully this blog has at least partially described, there is a TON of stuff to do. Despite all of the exploring that we have done this summer, there is still so many things that we have not done and areas that we still need to explore. Anyway, we had our MSTP orientation this morning and then med school orientation starts tomorrow. Hopefully, it's not too boring, but at least it seems there will be lots of food and at least time to have fun at night.

A "non-WUMPers" view of WUMP week

2007-08-12T15:19:00.000-06:00

This week did mark a definite change of pace from our usual summer antics as most of the new arrivals were eager to start exploring the city (especially the central west end, however we did venture to the Hill last night to play bocce ball)! I also was not able to do WUMP because of my summer research rotation, but it sounded like everyone really enjoyed it and I'm also a bit jealous of the different things that they got to do. However, having a few days between my research rotation and orientation was really nice to be able to get some stuff done before things got crazy again.

I'm definitely someone who kind of likes to ease into things, so it was nice to be able to meet another wave of new people before the whole med school class gets here. It's been really nice that everyone has been so excited and willing to explore the city, and hopefully that will continue throughout the year, although probably the pace of social events will be a bit slower (which I think my desire for sleep and bank account will appreciate). It's been really interesting how diverse the group is, and I am guessing that will also be true for the entire med school class.

I feel like these types of preorientation/orientation times are really interesting because everyone is meeting tons of new people and trying to make new friends, but it is such an extremely unusual social situation that I find it hard to really get to know what people will be like normally. However, there's really no rush since we'll be spending at least the next 2 years with all of the med school kids and 6-8 with all of the MSTPers.

**These are some pics from last night at Tom's Bar and Grill, which has karaoke on the weekends.

WUMP week

2007-08-12T14:58:00.000-06:00

As mentioned earlier, things are bustling around here. We MSTPs and research-oriented meds have been up to our usual fun and games for the last month or so, but everything rapidly changed pace last Monday with the beginning of WUMP.

WUMP is the Washington University Medical Plunge, a weeklong foray into the world of medicine and serving the underprivileged. St. Louis offers a lot of chances to do this, from Planned Parenthood to shadowing a doctor at a prison, from a sexual abuse clinic to a homeless shelter. Only three MSTPs (that I know of) participated in WUMP this year, but had it not been for our lab rotations more of us would have applied. I really wanted to go see the correctional facility, but alas I had data to collect.

WUMP also gives you a head start on the social scene. The 40ish people participating in WUMP get to do the introduction and name learning a week earlier than the other meds, and any rotating MSTPs still in their labs may quickly find themselves out of the loop. WUMP is long in the daytime hours, but at night everyone goes out in one big group that for the most part has no cliques established yet and live like rockstars. It’s great. Yesterday we got about 40 people together in the 100 °F heat and played ultimate Frisbee for 2-3 hours. With a large group of intelligent people like this, it’d be hard for us to have anything but constant fun in a new city.

However, it seems that the uniform solidarity of the WUMP group lasts about a week, as last night I noticed the first evidence of cliques forming while we belted out our favorite songs at a karaoke bar. (Not that this is a terrible thing, as it’s pretty much guaranteed with a group larger than a dozen). With the MSTP orientation beginning tomorrow morning, a day earlier than the meds, the science geeks will be retiring a little earlier than previous nights. We’ll need the rest, too, for on Tuesday we will meet another 80 or so people that comprise the rest of our med school class. Alright, my phone is beeping with texts every few minutes because I am pulling together a dozen for dinner. Hopefully one of the other writers will be able to specifically write more about WUMP.